Neal @ March 8, 2010 # No Comment Yet
VAYAK’HEL/PEKUDEI (Exodus 35:1-40:38; haftarot I Kings 7:51-8:21 and, because Nisan starts on Tuesday making this a special Rosh Chodesh Shabbat, Ezekiel 45:16-46:18) WRAPS UP THE BOOK of Exodus by building the Tabernacle: the traveling God-tent whose structure and contents are so lovingly detailed in the previous four portions. After making certain that all the parts [...]
Neal @ January 25, 2010 # One Comment
YOU SEE THEM CASTING FURTIVE kitchenward gazes after a good dinner of roasted chicken or perhaps beef or lamb, excusing themselves with a piece of bread and trying not to run. Shortly afterward, stifled sighs waft back to the dining room.
Did I say “them?” I mean we. The Brotherhood of the Dunk.
The Brotherhood is a [...]
Neal @ January 11, 2010 # No Comment Yet
(sans apology to and/or connection with Messrs. Jarry et Ballard.)
THERE ARE THE HARLEY RIDERS. They would not dream of owning any transportation they couldn’t twiddle with or hack. Every knob, every switch, every gear is known and its connection to the whole machine is understood, monitored, adjusted. Their dreams are the smooth metal touch and [...]
Neal @ November 15, 2009 # No Comment Yet
THE REASON WE NEED each other is that life rarely contains enough different viewpoints to even begin understanding Life.
Neal @ September 29, 2009 # One Comment
(I DELIVERED THIS YESTERDAY AT my synagogue’s Yom Kippur morning service, and am posting it by popular post-service demand.)
For the past 10 years, Ann & I have shared a small apartment on Sonoma’s France Street. We have hosted weekly Torah studies, annual Instant Family Passover Seders, and our once-in-a-lifetime remarriage under the chuppah in 2002. [...]
